10 Essential George Harrison Songs to Listen to on His Birthday
George Harrison was the youngest member of The Beatles and was dubbed the quiet one. Though a bit of a misnomer (Tom Petty said he wouldn’t shut up), George often let his music do the talking. He came into his own as a songwriter with the Fab Four and continued the trend in his solo career. Here are 10 essential George Harrison songs to listen to on his Feb. 25 birthday (presented in no particular order).
1. ‘Taxman’
George wrote the lead song from perhaps the best Beatles album with hardly any help. John Lennon refused to help George write “Taxman,” and that might have been a good thing.
The barbed guitar line, simple yet infectious melodies, and memorable lyrics culminated in his peak Beatles moment to that point. It’s not difficult to conceive George receiving a confidence boost knowing he penned a stellar song without any assistance.
“Taxman” is a standout song for The Beatles and an essential George song to listen to on his birthday.
2. ‘My Sweet Lord’
You knew this was coming. The standout track from his solo debut, All Things Must Pass, summarizes George’s spiritual worldview in less than five minutes. He references Hindu deities, the Hare Krishna, and drops Christian hallelujahs throughout the song.
His gently strummed chords and slide guitar parts showcase the guitar skills he built during his years in the Fab Four. It’s almost impossible to discuss George songs without mentioning “My Sweet Lord,” which is his most frequently streamed solo song on Spotify.
3. ‘Wah-Wah’
George followed “My Sweet Lord” with “Wah-Wah” on the All Things Must Pass track listing, and we’re following suit.
The ultimate diss track toward his Beatles bandmates, whom George calls out for giving him a wah-wah (a slang term for headache). It’s a hard-charging, densely-layered track with slide guitar, a bright horn section, and supple wah-wah pedal playing underneath it all.
4. ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)’
The gentle tune is basically an inside look at George’s spirituality. He never hid his spiritual side, but “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” sees him pleading for a higher power to “Give me hope, help me cope with this heavy load / Trying to touch and reach you with heart and soul.”
George adds restrained slide guitar and a jazzy piano line to his strummed acoustic lead-in, and it all comes together beautifully. On George’s birthday, it’s the perfect song to remember that he always possessed a contemplative side he never hesitated to show the world.
5. ‘Love You To’
George’s sitar-heavy contribution to Revolver brought his interest in Indian music to the masses. “Love You To” takes some time to get going, but once it does, the insistent tabla beat and background sonic flourishes make the song a standout on a stellar album.
He brought back his sitar for “Within You Without You” on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but he puts it to better use on “Love You To.” It’s just as layered as “Within You Without You,” but it’s a shorter song that’s more digestible than the one that came a year later.
6. ‘Something’
A more assertive George found his voice in The Beatles by the time of Abbey Road. He shot down Paul McCartney’s idea for a complicated bass line. Keeping it simple paid off on one of the Fab Four’s most beautiful songs. And to think, he tried to give the song away to Joe Cocker before he recorded it for The Beatles.
7. ‘Here Comes the Sun’
George didn’t live to see the streaming music age, unfortunately. If he had, “Here Comes the Sun” would have confirmed what he believed was true by the end of The Beatles’ run — that his songwriting was every bit as good as Paul’s and John Lennon’s.
“Here Comes the Sun” is The Beatles’ most-streamed song on Spotify, and it’s not particularly close. As it approaches 1 billion streams, “Come Together” sits hundreds of millions of plays behind in a distant second. The public has spoken, and the message is loud and clear — “Here Comes the Sun” is one of the best George songs out there.
George wrote the song while playing hooky from The Beatles’ day-to-day duties. He somehow managed to work in a hard-to-play Moog synthesizer part even though he had no training and was one of the first musicians in England to get his hands on one.
8. ‘What Is Life’
Coming on the heels of “Isn’t It a Pity,” a slow, lengthy dig at The Beatles, on the All Things Must Pass track listing, “What Is Life” is like a ray of sunshine.
Indeed, the timeless song — with its horn section, layered vocals in the chorus, and throwback rock ‘n’ roll guitar riff — is mixed so cleanly that it sounds like George recorded it in the 1980s. “What Is Life” is an absolutely essential George Harrison song. What would life be without it?
9. ‘Handle With Care’
The lead track from the first Traveling Wilburys album saw all five Wilbury brothers — George, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty — earn songwriting credits. All of the band’s songs were credited that way. Yet George wrote the bulk of “Handle With Care” with some help from Lynne.
After a fallow period in the mid-1980s, George returned with a vengeance with Cloud Nine and his Traveling Wilburys supergroup toward the end of the decade. “Handle With Care” might be the best song on their Vol. 1 album. George sings a superb melody in the chorus, Orbison lends his distinctive voice to the bridge, and the harmonization of the chorus hits like a jackhammer. One of the best George songs to listen to on his birthday proved he still had the magic nearly 20 years after All Things Must Pass.
10. ‘Got My Mind Set on You’
OK, so it’s not a George original, but his joyous and sonically crisp Rudy Clark cover proved that he still had plenty left in the tank in 1987, five years after his lackluster Gone Troppo hit shelves.
The effervescent “Got My Mind Set on You” has a little bit of everything — boisterous sax blows, wonderful background vocals, a low-end piano riff, and an instantly recognizable drum beat. The Cloud Nine album was also a mini Beatles reunion. George saved Ringo Starr from boredom when he asked him to handle drumming duties on the album.
It’s not an original, but “Got My Mind Set on You” is one of the most essential George Harrison songs to pipe through your headphones on his Feb. 25 birthday.
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